Dangerous Animals features 3 of my greatest fears: the open water, sharks and a deranged (but sexy) serial killer.
Director Sean Byrne takes the shark movies we all know and love and breathes fresh life into it – it’s sexy, it’s violent, and it’s pretty funny too. Centred around our loner hero Zepher (Hassie Harrison), who takes the helm perfectly as a person you want to root for from the moment we meet her. She’s a cool surfer chick with a feisty attitude, we know that all too well with shark movies, but there is something about how Harrison portrays her that makes the audience want to win; she is at one with the sharks and also with us. However, you simply cannot talk about Dangerous Animals without mentioning Jai Courtney’s character Bruce Tucker, our shark-obsessed serial killer who absolutely steals the show in every scene he is in.
What works fantastically is that we never find out why he does what he does, while it briefly touches and hints at the tired, overused mummy issues trope, it never goes any further than that one moment (if you know you know), and that’s all we need. We believe his love of sharks, and we truly believe that he just loves to kill people. It’s his life and his full-time hobby, and sometimes you gotta respect a guy going all out and making his job a hobby, right?
The film doesn’t outstay its welcome. Sitting perfectly at just over an hour and a half, the audience has very few chances to come up for air, and for me, that works perfectly. There is no fluff, no drawn-out extended scenes between characters, it’s just wall-to-wall shark fun. Which is exactly what you want when you go see a film about a serial killer who uses sharks as his weapon of choice.
All in all, Dangerous Animals is a fantastic ride from start to finish. It will now sit happily next to some of the greatest shark movies we all know so well. A great summer hit that is bound to be enjoyed by pretty much anyone who loves some good, silly (and I repeat, sexy) fun.
Lastly, as a final note… you still won’t catch me in a shark tank any time soon.
Dangerous Animals is in UK and Ireland cinemas 6th June
